1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to child safety harnesses for securing a child to an adult in a vehicle having lap belts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many modes of public transportation use the same type of safety restraint: the lap belt. They are found on all airplanes and automobiles, and on many trains and buses. These vehicles ordinarily provide one lap belt for one seat that is designed to hold one adult.
Inevitably, adult passengers will transport a child or infant on the adult's lap without a proper safety restraint. Even though this is inherently unsafe for the child, adults transport children this way for any of several reasons. It is much less expensive when two passengers take up only one seat. It allows the adult to more closely supervise the child. The probability is low that the vehicle in which they are riding will have an emergency on any given trip. Most importantly, there is no convenient safety device available that will both restrain the child to the adult, and also permit the adult and child to quickly escape a vehicle together in an emergency.
Others have attempted to provide child safety harnesses for securing a child to an adult's lap while seated in a vehicle. One example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,540,403, that issued on Jul. 30, 1996, to Standley, which is not admitted to be prior art by its inclusion in this background section. Standley discloses child safety harness that is secured to an adult's lap belt. However, in an emergency the adult must release the lap belt and leave the vehicle without being further secured to the child. In the case of an emergency there is likely to be a great deal of panic, and possibly smoke or other sources of disorientation making it impossible for the adult to guide a child to safety.
Another example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,548, that issued on May 13, 1997, to Lacoste, which is also not admitted to be prior art by its inclusion in this background section. Lacoste discloses a complex passenger restraint system, wherein an adult and child each have to wear a harness. Like in Standley, the child is secured to the adult by a connection in the rear of the child's harness. These designs may be able to hold a child onto an adult's lap while seated. However, they would be unsuitable for quickly transporting the child out of a vehicle in an emergency with the child still secured to the adult. The child would have to be detached from the safety harness in the midst of an emergency even before the adult stood up to try to escape the vehicle.
What is needed, therefore, is a method and apparatus for securing a child to an adult in a vehicle having lap belts that enables the adult and child to quickly escape from the vehicle in an emergency.